The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has updated its crypto guidance to let CFTC-registered firms invest customer funds in tokenized assets and keep regulatory records on a blockchain, the agency said in a [press release on Thursday, September 24](https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9303-26).
The update came out through the Market Participants Division, the Division of Market Oversight and the Division of Clearing and Risk, which jointly revised frequently asked questions first published in March. Under the revised language, customer funds may go into tokenized forms of assets that already count as permissible investments. The CFTC attached one condition: the tokenized form of the asset must grant the holder legal and economic rights that are the same, or functionally equivalent, to the rights held by holders of the asset in its traditional form.
The same FAQ update covers recordkeeping. CFTC staff said they would not object if a firm used blockchain or distributed ledger technology to create and maintain records onchain and satisfy its recordkeeping obligations, a permission that reaches any CFTC rule involving recordkeeping and the maintenance of regulatory data. For firms running on private networks, staff indicated an offchain copy of the records may not be needed at all. Firms on public, permissionless blockchains face a stricter bar: they must set up systems and controls that let them retain and produce records under any circumstances, including a network disruption.
The timing matters. The update landed days after the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, the bill that would have given the CFTC authority over crypto spot markets. The agency did not connect the two, but the direction of travel is visible on both sides: with the market structure bill stalled, the CFTC has sent a crypto regulation plan to the White House for review, and SEC Chair Paul Atkins said before the CLARITY vote that his agency was “ready, willing, and able” to propose crypto rules without congressional action.
CFTC Chairman Mike Selig cast the FAQ update in the same spirit, saying in a statement he was pleased to see staff update the questions “consistent with the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry.”
